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Facebook First Impressions

Last week I wrote about my struggle deciding whether or not to join Facebook. After doing some research on the subject I decided I should at least give it a try. I have been working on it for three days now and thought I’d share my first impressions.

I wanted to set up what is called a fan page for people who are on Facebook to view my work and see what I am up to. The first thing I learned is that you can’t just set up a fan page. You also have to set up a personal profile. This is where the confusion started for me. The pages looked the same, and yet they were different. Applications that worked on the profile page didn’t necessarily work on my fan page. The fan page doesn’t actually say it’s a fan page. Nowhere did I see a place for people to become a fan. It took me a full day before I figured out that Facebook had changed things. You no longer “become a fan” instead you “like” a page.

Then there was the confusion of how to direct people to my fan page. I truly don’t understand why there isn’t a place that lists and links the fan pages you have on the personal profile page. I was collecting a handful of business friends, but they were posting on my profile page wall not my fan page wall. I finally figured out I could change my personal profile settings so no one could write on my profile wall. Then in the box under my picture I put a link to my fan page.

I already Twitter, have a blog, and post pictures to Flickr. I wanted a way to incorporate these things in Facebook. It took awhile, but I finally found a way to incorporate all of these into my fan page. An application by Involver let me set up a tab to display my Flickr photos in a really cool viewer. An RSS application let me put my latest blog post on another tab. The tab named “My Store” takes you to my online shop that I have here on my blog. The shopping cart software I use for this is Ecwid. The “For Sale” tab uses a new application from Bixbe that lets anyone sell anything by creating individual listings that can be posted on a blog, website or Facebook. I plan to use it for sales and specials. An additional tab has my Etsy Shop. And last but not least I managed to get my tweets to go to my wall. Phew! I have been busy.

After researching this for days and reading forum posts, I have come to the conclusion that I am not the only one confused by Facebook. Originally Facebook was a way for individuals to connect with one another. Then businesses wanted to get into the act. To me, it feels like the implementation of fan pages was an afterthought and patched on. It just isn’t intuitive or clear. For example I first thought if made a page a favorite, I was becoming a fan of that page. This is not the case. Perhaps as I spend more time with Facebook it will make more sense. At the moment, it’s still all a bit hazy.

So if you are on Facebook please take a look at my fan page and let me know what you think. Would also love if you clicked on the Like button. I need 25 fans before I can change the url of my fan page to something more readable. The great thing about a fan page is you don’t have to be a friend to be a fan. So children…. if you are reading this…. you can be a fan and still not let be your friend!